Tag Archive: Staples; Fiona

Guys. Guys! I can’t! I just can’t! Okay, let me get myself together and get on with this review. As you may remember from when I reviewed the first Saga, I love this series with all four chambers of my heart. I can’t remember the last time that I have dived into a series and not had to stop myself from doing any eye-rolling or reading through a ho-hum part to get to the next good part.

The whole thing is good parts.

So the story is narrated by Marko and Alana’s child who provides much needed context from much farther in the future. However, I had kinda forgotten about this conceit, so I had a little bit of an issue piecing together who the narrator was at first. But once I got it, it all snapped back into place.

At the end of the first collection, Marko’s parents port in, because all of the moon-horn people can cast a variety of magic. So they came looking for him since he had run away from the army and become a peacenik. Unfortunately, on their way in, they banished the babysitter ghost to a nearby planet, and Marko insists that they go find her. So while he goes to find the babysitter and his mom follows, Alana is left with his dad, and because of the long-running civil war, they have plenty of not pleasant attitude for each other to go around. And at one point, the ship on Alana’s request traps him in some vines so he can’t get out. He can’t just magic himself out because in this universe, you have to give up a secret to cast a spell. And he reveals the secret that no one knows: he is going to die within the month from an incurable disease.

Surprise. All the surprises.

So they become better friends, and dadturns out to be an armorer, so he spends a chunk of time weaving clothes for everyone that have all sorts of magical enhancements. Back on the planet, turns out, it’s not a planet. It’s an egg, and a massive time sucking beast is being born out of it.

And that’s just one of the stories.

Then there’s The Will, who goes back to Whore Planet to get the Slave Child out of hock. Gwen, Marko’s ex, has decided that she wants to find him and punish him for his half-breed spawn, partly out of duty to the army she’s in, but mostly because she’s been scorned. Seriously, a lot of this is like Dynasty in space, but that’s okay. I love some high emotion borderline camp moments.

There’s also the backstory of how Alana and Marko ended up together, basically falling in love over a romance novel that serves as a metaphor for how everyone should just get along.

Oh, and computer prince is still after them, and at the end of the collection, he has them cornered and he doesn’t even know it yet.

The art. The story. The characters. It’s all frikkin fantastic. The only bad thing is that volume 3 doesn’t come out until the end of this month.

On Saturday, we took Micah to the vet. She’d been real low key all week, not eating a whole lot, and when she couldn’t really use her back right leg, it was vet time. And if you have never had to take your dog to the vet on a Saturday morning, let me tell you that it’s an experience. All the dogs. All the dogs who have not been socialized. And then there’s Micah, the wenchiest of all the dogs, who just wants to be friends or hide, depending on the moment. And there is a long wait.

So luckily I grabbed the first volume of Saga. It was so good I almost finished it in the waiting room.

Saga quite literally feels like its going to be a saga: deep, involved, and dealing with emotions and reality on an epic scale. It starts with the birth of Marko (the horned guy) and Alana’s (the winged girl) child. However, since they’re on the run, and from opposite sides of a long running civil war, this is bad news for them. They immediately get busted in on, and they spend the rest of the volume trying to escape the planet they’re stranded on. Along the way, they run into ghosts, a spider lady bounty hunter, a forest made of rockets, and all the battles. So, you know, the best way to spend the first few days of your newborn’s life.

Then there’s the story of a bounty hunter called The Will who gets hired to track them down. But he’s a bad guy with a soul, so when he thinks at first that he won’t be able to nab them (because his ex, the spider bounty hunter, is on the job), he goes to Whore Island (Whore Planet, really…), and ends up killing a bunch of people to rescue a massively under-aged prostitute. Oh, and he has a scary-looking cat that can detect when people are lying. So, in his desperation to make some money and flee the Whore Planet, he is back on the case, seeking the fugitives.

And lastly, there’s the Computer-Headed Prince who has to get to the fugitives first so that he can restore his honor and make it home in time for the birth of his child. So, there’s a lot going on.

First things first: this is a beautifully drawn graphic novel. I rarely comment on the art of these stories because I know that I couldn’t do even a fraction of how well they do. But in this case, Staples really outdid herself. The pages are lush and saturated, giving the story that truly epic feel that the stories embody.

And the concept is very magic verses technology, main city verses the rebels, et cetera et cetera ad nauseum, but just because it’s a standard doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily mean that it’s unoriginal. The series feels like a story that is just ramping up. This first volume just put the pieces on the board and let you know a little about what each character is about. But this story is going to take a long time and have a lot of twists and turns.